What if Your Body Remembers What Your Mind Has Forgotten?
- Brainz Magazine
- 7 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
An-Marie Ferdinand is a wellness expert and founder of Body By An-Marie, LLC. She blends massage, reflexology, and energy work to help clients relieve pain, reduce stress, and restore balance. Her client-centered approach creates a safe, supported space for healing, renewal, and personal transformation.
What if your body remembers what your mind has long forgotten? The tightness in your shoulders, the flare of sudden anger, the ache in your back, these aren’t random. They are whispers of a story your body has been carrying for years, sometimes decades, and sometimes even before you were born. This is the story of your blueprint, your body’s memory of every emotion, every fear, every moment of love and loss.
Could your body be holding memories you can’t recall?
Your body remembers things your mind may have long forgotten: a childhood fall, a harsh word spoken years ago, a moment of fear or anger you thought you’d let go. Even experiences from before you were born can leave a subtle imprint.
These memories don’t live in your thoughts, they live in your muscles, joints, and nervous system. They show up as tension you can’t explain, an unexpected flare of anger, or a pain that returns without warning. This is your blueprint, a map of every experience and emotion your body has stored, quietly shaping how you move, feel, and respond to the world.
Healing unfolds in layers. Often, physical sensations appear first, calling attention to what the body has been carrying. As the body begins to release, emotional layers emerge, revealing patterns, memories, and feelings that were once buried. Understanding this changes everything.
It’s not that your body is working against you. It’s working for you, holding onto what it needed to survive, until it can finally let go.
Can old injuries or trauma still affect your body today?
Many clients are surprised to learn how physical trauma from years, even decades, ago can continue to affect their bodies. An old injury, a frightening experience, or a moment of intense emotion may seem resolved, yet the body continues to protect itself.
These protective patterns show up as tension, restricted movement, sudden emotional responses, or habits that feel automatic. Even experiences you think are behind you, and sometimes the echoes of your parents’ or ancestors’ experiences, can resurface unexpectedly, guiding the body’s responses in ways you may not understand at first.
Recognizing that the past is still present is the first step in working with your body rather than against it. When we see these patterns as intelligence rather than limitation, we can create the space for the body to release, remember safely, and eventually rewrite its blueprint.
How do buried memories surface during bodywork?
In my experience working with clients, memories of past trauma don’t always surface immediately. When I ask about a specific experience, many clients may not recall it at the moment. But often, something begins to spark after they leave. Out of nowhere, or while doing something ordinary and not consciously thinking about it, a distant memory can arise. Slowly, they begin to remember bits and pieces of the trauma.
It’s almost like a massive oak tree. The body carries long memories of the past and present, deeply rooted and intertwined. With each bodywork session, a new memory may open, revealing another layer of the story. The body doesn’t always release what it isn’t ready to, and that’s okay. It unfolds gradually, at its own pace, guiding the process with intelligence and care.
It takes time, patience, and attention to dig beneath the surface and allow these stories to emerge. Memories unfold gradually, and the body shows what it is ready to release and when.
Why do bodywork sessions feel so different each time?
Depending on the session, clients can experience a wide range of sensations and emotions. Some don’t know what to feel when they get up. Some don’t have words to describe their experience, and that’s okay. Some sessions are designed to help you get out of your head and into flow, allowing whatever needs to come through to come through. Some clients describe it as feeling like the “Twilight Zone.”
Often, memories resurface later, on the drive home or once the body is relaxed. For example, a client came to me because of a physical trauma. Over several sessions, each one revealed something different.
One session opened the door to a deeper trauma that had caused anxiety: a fire accident he had been involved in. During the session, he recalled sitting at a campfire. He remembered the peace of the moment, how happy and relaxed he felt, and even details like the sweater his wife had been wearing. As he stayed with the memory, he could smell the campfire. The body wasn’t just remembering, it was sensing. As the story unfolded, his body softened, his breathing slowed, and he shared how calm he felt and how much he had always loved the fire.
These experiences show that healing is gradual, unique, and deeply personal, and that the body knows how to guide the process when we allow it to.
What happens when your body releases stored trauma?
During my work with clients, I don’t just feel muscles or joints, I feel hesitation, holding, protection, old habits, tension patterns, and the emotions the body has carried for decades. Often, clients don’t remember the source: a childhood fall, a forgotten injury, or words spoken before they could understand them. But as the body softens and releases, memories and feelings begin to surface.
For example, I was working on a client’s cranium, and the entire session, I could feel her anger, tense organs, and tightness in her jaw and neck. It was as if she couldn’t let go. After the session, we spoke, and I shared what I had felt, that there was anger and emotions she had been holding. She broke down and told me her childhood story, explaining why she was still carrying that anger and who it was directed toward. That moment, when the body reveals what the mind has long forgotten, is where real healing begins.
Over multiple sessions, the story deepened. We first established the “who” and “why” of the anger. In the second session, a softer layer opened: she realized she was missing someone important in her life, and beneath that longing was the anger she had been carrying. This time, we explored what part of this emotion she could own, was the anger truly hers, or was it ancestral, passed down and absorbed while growing up?
By the third session, another door opened. With a big sigh of relief, she realized that much of the anger wasn’t hers at all, it was ancestral emotion bleeding through, inherited patterns she had been carrying unknowingly. She now understood that her healing had to start with herself, choosing not to allow the past, her parents’, ancestors’, or her own old pain, to take control.
Can listening to your body help heal?
Healing doesn’t come from forcing the body forward or trying to “move on.” It begins when the body is allowed to complete what it couldn’t at the time. We cannot expect results to happen in one session, one day, or even one week. Everyone is different, and honoring our own uniqueness, our timing, our pace, our capacity, is part of the healing itself.
Healing takes time, unfolding layer by layer, often starting with the physical, then moving into the emotional, sometimes revealing patterns that have been held for years. When the body feels safe enough, stored tension, pain, and suppressed emotions begin to release naturally. Nothing is rushed. Nothing is forced. The body reveals what it is ready to let go of when the timing is right.
With attention, care, and patience, the body begins to rewrite old patterns. Memories surface gradually, emotions soften, and long-held habits loosen their grip. This process isn’t easy. It can be challenging, uncomfortable, and even painful to face old stories and emotions. But the only way through is to go through it, fully, gently, and with patience. When we allow healing to unfold rather than demand it, true change becomes possible.
Your body has been speaking all along, are you listening?
True healing looks different for everyone. Once the door is open, you have to step through it, telling the story, feeling it, and allowing it to surface. With each retelling, another layer may appear, another memory waiting to be acknowledged. This process repeats until the story no longer holds power over you, until it no longer sparks a reaction or emotion.
Eventually, you can watch your own story like a movie, fully aware but without flinching, without being pulled back into old fear, anger, or sadness. Your reality begins to shift. Life expands. Patterns loosen. The body and mind move forward freely, and the story that once controlled you becomes a source of wisdom rather than limitation.
This is where the magic happens, body and mind, together, working in harmony.
How can you honor your body’s story?
One of the first steps in truly understanding yourself is accepting imperfection, recognizing that you don’t need to be fixed, only listened to. Healing begins with the willingness to open, to receive support, and to allow yourself to be seen, even in the places that feel unfinished or uncomfortable.
Your body has been carrying your story long before your mind could remember it. Notice the tension, the old habits, the protective patterns, and the emotions tucked away, each is an invitation to understand, release, and heal. For example, the holding patterns in your jaw and TMJ are often tension you’ve carried for years. That tension quietly signals your neck and nervous system to stay in a constant state of protection, a subtle fight mode, even when there is no immediate danger.
These signals are not weaknesses; they are the body’s language, shaped by experience, survival, and care.
You don’t have to do it alone. Whether through mindful movement, bodywork, talking to someone, or simply giving yourself the space to feel, every step you take honors your journey. Healing is not about rushing forward, it’s about meeting yourself where you are and allowing the process to unfold in its own time.
Your body has been speaking all along. Now it’s time to listen, honor its story, and allow yourself the healing you deserve.
Read more from An-Marie Ferdinand
An-Marie Ferdinand, Licensed Massage Therapist
An-Marie Ferdinand is a wellness expert specializing in massage therapy, nutrition, fitness, and holistic healing. She's the founder of Body By An-Marie, LLC, where she helps clients reconnect with their bodies and reclaim their well-being. Her work blends science and intuition, integrating bodywork, reflexology, and energy healing. An-Marie is passionate about supporting others through stress, pain, and emotional fatigue with personalized client-centered care. Her unique approach empowers people to align with their natural healing potential. She creates a safe, nurturing space for transformation and renewal. Whether you're seeking relief, balance, or a deeper connection, An-Marie is here to support your wellness journey.
